A Quick Guide to Learning TikTok Dances
I’m no dancer, but I managed to learn a TikTok dance. If I can do it, you can too.
I need to preface this blog post by emphasizing that I am REALLY bad at dancing. I’m not coordinated at all, so I was pretty intimidated by the idea of learning a TikTok dance, but with not much else to do during this time of social distancing, I decided to give it a try. I spend soooo much time mindlessly scrolling through TikTok and I can’t help but feel a little bitter about all of these 14-year-olds who somehow just skipped over the awkward stage of growing up. However, TikTok is EXTREMELY addicting and I’ve grown to love it, annoying dances included.
Step 1
Find a dance! There are so many different dance trends that come and go very quickly. You could opt-in for one of the classics, like the Renegade, or something newer that shows up on your For You page. I chose to learn the dance to Savage by Megan Thee Stallion. See below for Addison Rae’s version.
Step 2
Watch this dance ON REPEAT. Seriously though, like watch it loop several times over, almost until you reach your breaking point when you feel like you can’t take listening to the song anymore.
Step 3
Find a slow-motion tutorial. This was a game-changer for someone who is extremely uncoordinated like me. I simply searched “savage dance tutorial” in the TikTok search bar and a ton of them came up. Some of the tutorials are faceless, like people dancing with a morph suit or a hoodie pulled over their faces, and some are just with normal people. These tutorials also often include the names of the dance moves popping up on the screen in order.
Step 4
Find an area where you can see a full-body reflection of yourself. For my sister and I, we practiced our dance at night so we were able to see our reflections in a sliding glass door.
Step 5
Break down the dance moves, only do two or three moves at a time, MAXIMUM. Once you master doing those two or three moves in slow motion, try them again at a regular pace with the music. If you’ve got those down, move on to mastering the next two or three moves, then combine from the beginning. Repeat until you’ve made your way through the whole dance.
Step 6
Time to record! Prop your phone up on a surface that gives you the most flattering angle you desire, add the music to your TikTok, and press record! If you mess up, it’s all part of the process — you can see what moves look weird from the outside and focus on those. Keep recording at your heart’s desire.
Step 7
Before settling on one to post, my sister and I called it a night and decided to resume the next day. After getting a full night’s sleep, I was honestly surprised by the muscle memory I’d developed from the day before. The dance suddenly seemed so much shorter… and actually not that hard? And that’s coming from someone who is ridiculously uncoordinated.
So go ahead and give it a shot! You know you want to.
